fatal push

Lightning Bolt once set Modern’s high-water mark: the most efficient and flexible removal spell at its price point, Bolt dictated which creatures did and didn’t see play in Modern almost single-handedly. Today, Bolt’s no longer the end-all-be-all of Modern kill spells.…

Bloodbraid Elf and Jace, the Mind Sculptor have been unbanned in Modern for a week now. Contrary to what we’ve heard since the announcement, the format is just fine, and perhaps even better: it’s fresher, to be sure, with new…

Modern’s detractors have long cast the format as a writhing mess of linear decks, all ignoring each other or skillfully opening sideboard hosers all the way to each hyper-aggressive Top 8. But until recently, Modern’s pound-for-pound fairest deck—Jund—has commanded more metagame…

In “What’s in a Goyf? Benchmark Creature Playability in Modern,” I considered the bar creatures must meet to make the cut in this format. Aether Revolt gave us Fatal Push, and that bar has since changed—but no creature has felt the…

In The Bolt Test: Modern’s High-Water Mark, I revisited an old Mike Flores article on toughness. Flores claimed a format was often defined by the amount of damage its red removal spell dealt. Burn spells generally serve as some of the most…

If you want to play control in Modern this week, Grixis is not the answer. Corey Burkhart has an excellent list that he’s been using to great success, and if you’ve read my articles over the past couple weeks by…

Current metagame: 12/1 – 12/31

NOTE: Metagame % is calculated from the unweighted average of all MTGO leagues, paper T8s/T16s, and GP/PT/Open Day 2s in the date range. Data is tracked in the Top Decks page, which you can browse for more details.